Was your sea change partly influenced by the fact that you were a key player in the American agronomy-industrial complex that is foisting Frankenfood and sundry chimerical stuff on the American people and eventually the world?
As a scientist I was thrilled to do a lot of real-world testing for our genetically-engineered projects. We did a lot of our field experiments for our European counterparts in the US since they could never be tested on their grounds currently. However I was very aware of the environmental impact of what our GMO projects were, and had always taken precautions to comply with US Federal regulations for field testing.

I had given presentations on genetic engineering at Guatemala, Mexico and local conferences for non-scientists. This was actually the fun part: when I give a talk to laymen, organic growers, vegans, hippies, Greenpeace warriors, et al. Their main concern? Uncontrolled widespread distribution of Frankenfood and other organisms. But genetic engineers can only manipulate so much, since most alien gene introductions to a plant or animal physiology will get rejected by the organism or by the species. After the talks though, most people were very receptive of the benefits of GMO’s, especially the aspect of reduced dependence to inorganic chemical pesticides in disease control, for example. I think more than anything the fear of the unknown turns off everyone, so it’s more of an education of the masses that needs to be done regularly. I would caution though about what’s printed and broadcast in the mass media – as they are only after sensationalism, and generally have very little scientific basis.

That explains why genetic engineers successfully introduced a woodpecker gene into a carrier pigeon and created a bird that not only delivers messages to their destination but knocks on the door when it gets there. But it doesn’t explain why soil bacterium in Frankencorn and daffodil in Frankenrice did not result to rejection, only proliferation.
That’s pretty funny with the pigeon-pecker. By the way- what do you get when you cross a parrot with a lion? I don’t know, but when it speaks you better listen. Anyway – the Bt gene is already existent in nature, and of course you know the natural proliferation of bacteria in this world, so there’s really no “foreign” gene involved. May be it was an inter-species but no alien genes were created. Same thing with the golden rice – we are just increasing the beta carotene content, but the beta carotene genes already exist in nature. As such they would naturally proliferate on the right hosts.

You seemed to have really liked it in the dark side of the Force (to use the language from the movie, ummm…uhhh, Air Force One)?
You had been watching too many movies! I suppose I don’t follow conventional thinking. I like challenges, and if it means joining the Dark Side – well I could explore that too. You’ll never know until you try, right? I used to get seasick so severely when I was young whenever I would get on a boat, so what I did I bought a waterbed and used it for about 5 years when I was working in Fresno (CA). Eventually that’s probably why I was so comfortable in the waters, and lived by the ocean later for 15 years. Heck now – I am half-fish, and if I spent any more inordinate time in the water you could visibly see the gills underneath my shirts. Maybe I am not always on the dark side, but in the deep side for sure.

Is one movie a week too many? My apology for the term “dark side of the Force”; I should have used the politically-correct term “Land of full-cream milk and honey-cured bacon.” We do have lots of half-fish humans in the Philippines, many of them undocumented Indians. They make a lucrative living in microfinance. And those are gills? I thought they were oversized nipples?
Watch your language there! A lot of impressionable Varrons will be reading this.

Last Updated on April 11, 2021 by Tudla_Admin